Combined Urban Airship + Simple Geo Take $15 Million Series C

It looks like Simple Geo may have made a solid bet after all. Last week the company was acquired by Urban Airship. That transaction – all stock – was actually part of a much larger financing, Urban Airshp’s Series C round of funding.

The new round brings in $15.1 million from new strategic investors Salesforce and Verizon and existing investors Foundry Group and True Ventures. That brings the total capital raised by Urban Airship to $21.6 million.

Urban Airship also issued Series C stock to Simple Geo stockholders as part of the acquisition. That stock was issued in addition to the $15.1 million on cash raised by Urban Airship, CEO Scott Kveton told me today in a phone interview.

Urban Airship helps mobile developers send notifications to users, and they’re now sending a billion notifications per month to users on 300 million devices. They also assist developers with virtual good sales and app subscriptions. They charge a modest fee for all of these services.

Simple Geo will add location awareness to the process, helping developers send more relevant notifications. “We’ll tell ESPN that Sunday afternoon is a great time to send users a fantasy football message,” says Kveton, “but we’ll also tell Groupon to perhaps hold off during that period.” Both ESPN and Groupon are Urban Airship customers.

Knowing where a user is at any given time will help them refine messages further. Kveton says that the company will offer products including Simple Geo’s services early next year.

Former SimpleGeo CEO Jay Adelson was also on the call and seems enthusiastic about Urban Airship’s business going forward. “We considered raising new venture money to grow the company, or selling SimpleGeo for cash, but the biggest opportunity for shareholders was through a merger with Urban Airship,” he said.